Lyrics to
Brother

This version of Brother was released by Gil Scott-Heron in 1970.

Our Gil Scott-Heron Songs profile has Brother lyrics from 1970 and most if not all of the lyrics by Gil Scott-Heron that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Gil Scott-Heron or about the 1970s in general.

We deal in too many externals, brother.
Always afros, handshakes, and dashikis.

Never can a man build a working structure for black capitalism.
Always does the man read Mao or Fanon.

I think I know you would-be black revolutionaries too well.
Standing on a box on a corner, talking about blowing the white boy away.
That’s not where it’s at, yet, brother.

Calling this man an Uncle Tom,
And telling this woman to get an afro,
But you won’t speak to her if she looks like hell, will you, brother?

Some of us been checking you act out kinda closely.
And by now it’s looking kinda shaky, the way you been rushing people with your super-black bag.
Jumping down on some black men with both feet because they are after their B.A.
But you’re never around when your B.A. is in danger.
I mean your black ASS.

I think it was a little too easy for you to forget that you were a negro before Malcolm.
You drove your white girl through the village every Friday night,
While the grass roots stared in envy and drank wine.
Do you remember?

You need get your memory banks organized, brother.
Show that man you call an Uncle Tom just where he is wrong.
Show that woman that you are a sincere black man.

All we need to do is see you SHUT UP AND BE BLACK.
Help that woman.
Help that man.
That’s what brothers are for, brother.

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Gil Scott-Heron has released many songs over the years besides Brother. Gil Scott-Heron released songs from 1970 to 2005 spanning across albums like Small Talk At 125th And Lenox, Pieces Of A Man, Free Will, Winter In America, The First Minute Of A New Day, It's Your World, From South Africa To South Carolina, Bridges, Secrets, The Mind Of Gil Scott-Heron, 1980, Real Eyes, Reflections, Moving Target, Spirits, and Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - Messages (Anthology). Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Gil Scott-Heron.

If you're a fan of lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1970 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Brother by Gil Scott-Heron

The lyrics for Brother are defined as the words making up the song released by Gil Scott-Heron in 1970. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Brother have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Gil Scott-Heron and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Brother by Gil Scott-Heron if you think through it. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Brother" means the words set to the music of Brother, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Gil Scott-Heron. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Brother and the lyrics to Brother are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Gil Scott-Heron who came here looking just for the lyrics to Brother, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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